Lake's Biggest Muck Farm Becomes 1st To Sell Out

A State Agency Will Buy A. Duda & Sons Inc.'s 3,412-acre Farm As Part Of An Effort To Save The Polluted Lake Apopka.

December 10, 1996|By Craig Quintana of The Sentinel Staff

The biggest of the Lake Apopka muck farms will become the first to sell out this week as part of Florida's effort to save its most-polluted large lake.

A. Duda & Sons Inc. has agreed to sell its 3,412-acre farm on the lake's northern shore to the St. Johns River Water Management District, the state agency running the cleanup.

Neither Duda nor district officials would reveal the price or terms, which will become public Wednesday when the deal goes before the district's governing board for consideration. If past sales of muck farm land are any indication, the price will run between $12 million and $14 million.

''We have agreed to a deal,'' said Donna Duda-Matthews, spokeswoman for the Oviedo-based company.

District officials had hoped to have more sales contracts lined up by now, but negotiations with the group of farmers who own the remaining 12,000 acres have not progressed.

''We've been at it six or seven weeks, but we're not at a contract stage with any of them,'' said Robert Christianson, the district's director of planning and acquisition.

This year, the Florida Legislature passed a $20 million buyout bill to clean up the lake. Farmers - who have tangled with the water district for years over pollution controls - were given the choice of selling out or having to install expensive pollution controls.

In October, the federal government announced it would contribute $26 million to the effort. The farmers estimated earlier this year that buying all their land would cost $95 million.

Most experts said the death of the 31,000-acre lake came primarily from agricultural pollution. The term ''muck farm'' refers to fertile black soil that was once lake bottom and in the 1940s was turned into high-yield vegetable fields.

The state plans to eventually flood the farms and return the onetime lake marsh to a more natural state.

Environmentalists hope the sale starts a domino reaction.

Nobody wants to be the last to sell because the St. Johns may or may not have money near the end of the buyout, said Jack Amon, president of the Friends of Lake Apopka. Lawmakers may not respond next spring to the district's anticipated request for more millions to complete the job, he said.

The members of the Zellwood Drainage District, a collection of smaller farmers, will be very interested in the per-acre purchase price, said Giles Van Duyne, Zellwood spokesman.